About

Course Number: LING 795.10.
Call Number: 14567.
Instructor: Carl Pollard.
Meeting Time: Wednesdays at 12:00pm.
Meeting Room: Scott Laboratory E105.

This is a weekly forum open to anyone with an interest in logic, language, information and computation (llic). The Linguistics Department is the official home of this forum, though given the subject matter, we encourage participation from interested parties in other departments -- especially mathematics, computer science and philosophy. We plan a varied schedule of work in progress presentations, general discussion and instructional tutorials. We do not shy away from the technical aspects, so be prepared to learn some math and theoretical computer science.

The main focus of llic is the intersection of linguistics, logic, and computation and information theory. Specifically, llic subject matter is drawn from

• Linguistics - Syntax, Semantics, Formal Pragmatics;
• Logic - Model Theory, Proof Theory;
• Algebra - Lattice Theory, Algebraic Semantics;
• Theoretical Computer Science - Formal Language Theory, Operational and Denotational Semantics;
• Information Theory - Dynamical Systems, Measure Theory, Machine Learning.

We welcome presentations on any of the material listed above. We try to coordinate our presentations with other linguistics and computer science reading groups:

• Clippers
• Slate Lab
• Synners
• Pragmatics Group

To get a sense of what kinds of presentations are given in which group, Clippers and Slate Lab focus primarily on machine learning, probabilistic language processing, and automatic speech recognition, Synners and Pragmatics Group primarily on syntax, semantics, and pragmatics phenomena and intuitive analysis. Commies focuses mainly on the algebra, logic, and theoretical computer science aspects used in cultivating and formalizing theory and developing practical applications.

Discussion Schedule

To suggest a paper or topic for discussion, email Andy Plummer at plummer@ling.osu.edu.
To receive information on upcoming events and presentations, join the commies mailing list.

Autumn 2009 | Winter 2010

Autumn 2009

Date	Topic	Felicitator
23 Sept	Organizational meeting	Comrades
30 Sept	Formal Systems: Combinatory Logic and λ-calculus Reading: Curry Introduction Curry Chapter 1 Curry Chapter 3 Seldin Chapter 2	Andy Plummer
07 Oct	Introduction to Haskell	Dominic Espinosa
14 Oct	Introduction to category theory for functional programming	Andy Plummer
21 Oct	More category theory for functional programming Monads for Functional Programming [Wadler 1992]	Pat Reidy
28 Oct	Monads in Haskell Kleisli Triple Slides	Dominic Espinosa
04 Nov	Variable-free Mayhem	Dennis Mehay
11 Nov	Veterans' Day
18 Nov	Introduction to Continuations Continuations: A Mathematical Semantics for Handling Full Jumps [Strachey and Wadsworth 2000]	Carl Pollard Scott Martin
25 Nov	Introduction to Findlay de groote slides Combining Montague semantics and discourse representation [Muskens 1996]	Carl Pollard Scott Martin
02 Dec	DRT --++	Scott Martin et. al.

Winter 2010

Some suggested topics for this quarter:

• LCF and PCF: Past, Present, Future.
• Domains and Lambda Calculi, ch 4, ch 6, ch 8.
• Applied Semantics: Introduction to Dependent Type Theory; Monads and Effects.
• Abstract Categorial Parsing.

Date	Topic	Felicitator
6 Jan	Organizational meeting	Comrades
13 Jan	Some lead in material	Andy Plummer
20 Jan
27 Jan
3 Feb
10 Feb
17 Feb
24 Feb
3 Mar
10 Mar	TIE Research	Andy Plummer

Links

Category Theory

Asperti and Longo: Categories, Types and Structures
Barr and Wells: Category Theory Lecture Notes
Blute and Scott: Category Theory for Linear Logicians
Crouch and van Genabith: Linear Logic for Linguists
Pierce: Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists
Scott: Some Aspects of Categories in Computer Science

Mathematics and Philosophy

MathSci
MathWorld
PlanetMath
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Linguistics

Convergent Grammar
Higher Order Grammar
LING 681: Algebraic Linguistics
LING 680: Formal Foundations

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